Archive for the 'a-noticias-ingles-tiempo-hur'

Noumea, Jan 3 (AFP) One man was killed and another was missing after Cyclone Freda hit New Caledonia, as landslides blocked roads and high winds downed power lines, officials in the French Pacific territory said Thursday.

Wind gusts had weakened to 90 kilometres per hour (60 miles per hour) as it moved towards the east Caledonian island of Mare, after hitting the Solomon Islands earlier this week as a destructive storm with gusts reaching 231 kph.

High commissioner Albert Dupuy told reporters in the capital Noumea that one man had drowned in high seas whipped up by Freda, while an 18-year-old male was missing after attempting to cross a swollen river.

Some 3,200 people were without power, Dupuy said, adding that multiple roadways were blocked by landslides or flooding.

The storm was moving eastward at 30 kph and set to leave the New Caledonian region over the next 48 hours, officials said.

Noumea (AFP) Jan 3, 2013 – One man was killed and another was missing after Cyclone Freda hit New Caledonia, as landslides blocked roads and high winds downed power lines, officials in the French Pacific territory said Thursday.

Wind gusts had weakened to 90 kilometres per hour (60 miles per hour) as it moved towards the east Caledonian island of Mare, after hitting the Solomon Islands earlier this week as a destructive storm with gusts reaching 231 kph.

High commissioner Albert Dupuy told reporters in the capital Noumea that one man had drowned in high seas whipped up by Freda, while an 18-year-old male was missing after attempting to cross a swollen river.

Some 3,200 people were without power, Dupuy said, adding that multiple roadways were blocked by landslides or flooding.

The storm was moving eastward at 30 kph and set to leave the New Caledonian region over the next 48 hours, officials said.

Santa Lucia, Rafael Freyre, Holguin, Dec 27 (Juventud Rebelde) The Armando Mestre Martinez community was inaugurated here yesterday with the delivery of 49 new homes for as many families, among the thousands that completely lost theirs to Hurricane Sandy in this province, only two months into the recovery effort.

Erected from adapting a disused facility, about 158 people, mostly women and children, live together in this community, which has, in addition to basic electricity services, an extensive network of paved streets and roads, parks and gardens.

Young Adisbel Rodriguez, a housewife aged 19 and her husband Yoan Baez, self-employed, with her three young children were among the beneficiaries of these houses, in general, better constructions than those they had and able withstand intense weather events.

The handing over, celebrated with a simple public ceremony in the municipal seat, was chaired by Jorge Cuevas Ramos, first secretary of the party in the province, and Sucel Téllez Tamayo, president of the People’s Power, among other local authorities.

According to reports, the outlook for more housing development will continue in this same area during the coming year, with the construction of a hundred dwellings, for which the earthmoving work has already been completed.

Archi Lan Ayala, vice president of the Council for construction of the provincial administration, told reporters that of the more than 64,000 homes registered with damage by Sandy of different magnitudes, 13,145 homes have been recovered so far, representing 20.3 percent of that total.

According to the same source, by the end of this year the province of Holguín will have completed about 2,200 houses, of which, around 1,200 will favor, particularly, those affected by the meteorological events.

Luxembourg, Dec 26 (Prensa Latina) The government of Luxembourg transmitted its sincere condolences to Cuba for the damages caused by hurricane Sandy in eastern Cuba last October.

In message to Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, Luxembourg counterpart Jean Asselborn expressed her sincere condolences and compassion and their solidarity to the victims’ families and relatives.

I ask you to accept, your honor, the certainty that we share your pain in such hard moments.

Diplomatic sources from Luxembourg announced an official contribution of 175,000 euros to fund the projects to help ease the aftermath.

Sandy -a two-degree hurricane in the Saffir-Simpson scale- swept through Santiago de Cuba, Holguin and Guantanamo provinces in pre-dawn hours of October 25th with winds of more than 175 kph, leaving a trail of massive damage, fundamentally, in the infrastructure -on housing, the agribusiness and the electricity and communications grid, plus 11 dead.

Manila, Dec 22 (Prensa Latina) The Philippine authorities reported that typhoon Bopha caused losses of nearly one billion US dollars and 1,067 dead people that have been identified so far.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said that the number of wounded people exceeds 2,000 and 14,000 people are still in evacuation centers. The number of houses totally destroyed is 80,000 and those damaged reached 102,000.

Bopha, called Pablo in the Philippines, devastated the central and southern areas of the archipelago, especially the provinces of Compostela Valley and Central Davao in the southern island of Mindanao.

In those regions, the damage to agriculture represent 72 percent of the losses, calculated in a total of $836 million US, said Council Director Benito Ramos.

Manil, Dec 23 (Prensa Latina) The National Council on Disaster Prevention in Philippines reported on Sunday that the number of houses destroyed by typhoon Bopha reached 102,506, among other information provided.

In a recent newsletter, the institution certified the death toll at 1,067 and 834 missing, 2,666 injured and losses close to one billion dollars.

The numbers of evacuees still centers in poorly fitted out for this purpose, remained at 13, 940, and nine bridges completely destroyed, 29 regions without electricity and serious damage to agriculture.

The reports specified that all the south of the archipelago where the Bopha-(Paul in Philippine) entered suffered losses in the civil infraestructra and farmland.

Manila, Dec 13 (Prensa Latina) The Philippine authorities asserted on Thursday that the number of deaths caused by typhoon Bopha increased to 902, while rescue workers and international organizations search for more corpses and assist thousands of victims.

According to a report by the National Risk Disaster Reduction and Management Council, the number of wounded people reached 1,947 in central and southern areas of the archipelago and the number of victims was estimated at 5.4 million.

The report specified that the evacuation centers have capacity to shelter just 100,000 of the 778,000 homeless people.

In the rescue works during Thursday early morning, 296 sailors thought to be missing were surprisingly found alive, because the companies they worked for had lost contact with the ships anchored in southern Mindano waters for one week.

The government affirmed that around 30 provinces were affected by Bopha, the worst typhoon of the season that concluded in November, which destroyed more than 57,000 houses and caused damage to 70,000 others. Meanwhile, the damage to the infrastructure is equivalent to more than $260 million US.

Thus, Philippine President Benigno Aquino declared national state of calamity during the weekend to speed up the use of the official funds, grant loans at preferential interests and control food prices.

Manila, Dec 11 (Prensa Latina) Typhoon Bopha, the strongest to hit the Philippines this year, has left 890 people missing, killed nearly 714, mainly fishermen, while nearly 1,900 people were injured, according to government sources.

Bopha caused floods and landslides in Mindanao on December 4 and devastated communities, stated the Civil Defense Office according to channelnewsasia.com.

Around 115,000 houses were destroyed and more than 116,000 inhabitants remain in government shelters, where they will stay for months until their new houses are built.

Authorities noted that some of those still missing could be among the 257 corpses recovered by rescue workers, but that remain unidentified and have still not been claimed by relatives.

Typhoon Bapho affected nearly 5.4 million people in 30 provinces, according to the National Council for Prevention and Response to Disasters.

President Benigno Aquino declared a national state of emergency on Saturday in order to speed up the use of official funds and granting of loans with preferential interest rates, as well as control food prices in the affected areas.

The United Nations launched a global campaign to raise $65 million USD to aid the victims of the typhoon, the deadliest natural disaster to affect the Philippines since Tropical Storm Washi, which killed 1,200 people in the northern coast of Mindanao last year.

United Nations, Dec 10 (Prensa Latina) The United Nations asked for contributions to raise $65 million USD to assist the victims of Typhoon Bopha that hit the Philippines last week.

The aid will be sent through an action plan for recovery drawn up for that purpose, including emergency shelter, water, food and other elements of basic necessities.

As reported by the coordinating office of the UN Humanitarian Affairs, the aid plan is envisaged to last six months and should cover the needs of 480,000 people in the areas hardest hit by the natural phenomenon.

Last Friday, the Philippine government declared a state of national calamity in the provinces of Compostela Valley, Eastern Davao and South Surigao, Mindanao, and declared itself open to offers of international assistance.

The bulk of the aid will be oriented towards that island in the south, the region hardest hit by the typhoon, which affected more than five million, leaving nearly 500 dead, and 500 missing.